A colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain and is the basis of the fluids of living organisms

body of water: the part of the earth’s surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean); “they invaded our territorial waters”; “they were sitting by the water’s edge”

supply with water, as with channels or ditches or streams; “Water the fields”

essay

A trial design of a postage stamp yet to be accepted

An attempt or effort

an analytic or interpretive literary composition

try: make an effort or attempt; “He tried to shake off his fears”; “The infant had essayed a few wobbly steps”; “The police attempted to stop the thief”; “He sought to improve himself”; “She always seeks to do good in the world”

a tentative attempt

A short piece of writing on a particular subject

save

Prevent (someone) from dying

Keep safe or rescue (someone or something) from harm or danger

salvage: save from ruin, destruction, or harm

to keep up and reserve for personal or special use; “She saved the old family photographs in a drawer”

(in Christian use) Preserve (a person’s soul) from damnation

(sports) the act of preventing the opposition from scoring; “the goalie made a brilliant save”; “the relief pitcher got credit for a save”

life

Living things and their activity

the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities; “he could no longer cope with the complexities of life”

the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living; “he hoped for a new life in Australia”; “he wanted to live his own life without interference from others”

The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death

The state of being alive as a human being

a characteristic state or mode of living; “social life”; “city life”; “real life”

save water save life essay – My Story

My Story as Told by Water: Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watchings, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, in the Age of the Industrial Dark

In this remarkable collection of essays, acclaimed author David James Duncan braids his contemplative, rhapsodic, and activist voices together into a potently distinctive whole, speaking with power and urgency about the vital connections between our water-filled bodies and this water-covered planet. All twenty-two pieces in this collection swirl and eddy around his early-forged bond with the rivers of the Pacific Northwest and their endangered native salmon. With a bracing blend of story, science, and comedy, Duncan relates mystical, life-changing adventures; draws incisive portraits of the humans and wild creatures who shaped his destiny; rips the corporate greed and political folly that have brought whole ecosystems to ruin; and meditates on the spiritual and practical necessity of acknowledging our dependence on water in its primal state.

When David James Duncan was growing up in suburban Portland, Oregon, he had no river to call his own, so he would routinely create one by flooding his mother’s garden with a hose. He would then revel in his creation until he received the inevitable scolding. The poor kid couldn’t help himself: “Running water … felt as necessary to me as food, sleep, parents, and air,” he explains. In time, he exchanged his nozzle for a fly rod and went in search of grander gardens, eventually developing an “interior coho compass” which he has traveled by ever since. As any reader of The River Why knows, Duncan is a master of the art of writing about fishing–which is also to say life, since the two for him are indelibly linked. But these essays deal with far more than leaky waders and rising trout. Part memoir, part activist treatise, My Story As Told by Water is Duncan’s love song to wild places and the creatures which inhabit them. The book’s highlight is his powerfully convincing essay “A Prayer for the Salmon’s Second Coming,” in which he argues that saving salmon is crucial to both man and fish alike: “A ‘modern Northwest’ that cannot support salmon is unlikely to support ‘modern Northwesterners’ for long,” he writes. In this elegant demand for the removal of four Snake River dams (out of 221 on the Snake/Columbia system), Duncan declares the wild salmon “a holiness, a divine gift,” a role model rather than a resource: “Salmon are a light darting not just through water, but through the human mind and heart. Salmon help shield us from fear of death by showing us how to follow our course without fear, and how to give ourselves for the sake of things greater than ourselves.” He also ruminates on the true meanings of “place” and “home”; offers a fable on the 1872 Mining Act, “the most anachronistic and devastating piece of ‘corporate welfare’ in the world”; and details how Montanans rallied to prevent a giant mining company from extracting gold near the Blackfoot River, the setting of the Norman Maclean classic A River Runs Through It. All in all, My Story As Told by Water is a moving collection by an exquisite writer endowed with wit, compassion, and the rare ability to appeal to both emotion and reason in equal measures. –Shawn Carkonen

Life la Henri is the delightful memoir-with-recipes of Henri Charpentier, the world’s first celebrity chef. First published in 1934, and back in print after nearly six decades, the book traces Henri’s career from his days as a scrap of a bellboy on the French Riviera and a quick-witted apprentice in a three-star kitchen (when he invented crepe suzette) to his sailing for New York to open his renowned namesake restaurants that introduced many to the glories of haute cuisine. Life la Henri is a memorable portrait of a top-flight restaurant kitchen, and is food writing of surpassing charm and taste. This edition includes a new Introduction by Alice Waters, owner and proprietor of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and author of many cookbooks.

Anyone who has experienced the sheer edible bliss of crêpes suzette has a reason to read Life à la Henri. The Henri in question is none other than the renowned chef Henri Charpentier, the man responsible for creating such tasty works of art. Written in the 1940s and elegantly translated from the original French, much of this memoir reads more like poetry than prose: on discussing his mother’s aversion to breastfeeding, he writes, “Had she nursed me, then certainly I would have grown up, if at all, to be a melancholy fellow, one nourished by tears.” His adventures included years of strict kitchen training, a short stint in the army, marriage, immigration to the U.S., and having numerous friends and patrons among the famous faces of his time. While Charpentier is a bit of a name-dropper, telling Prince Edward and Sarah Bernhardt stories throughout the book, there is mostly a sense of pride that such discriminating palates were worthy of his food, and his tales of choosing wines and creating special dishes are memorable. No matter what the topic of the chapter, his stories are generously sprinkled with specific memories of foods, spices, and scents, from the vegetable tarts that made for elegant childhood picnics to the suggestion of brandy, garlic, and onions as welcome wedding gifts. While specific recipes (onion soup, minute steak, roast duck) are included at the end of the book, nearly every chapter contains instructions on preparation of a sauce, stew, pie, or dessert. A variety of elegant alcohol is equally present, and Charpentier insists, “One of the surest ways to arouse a lively interest in cooking, either in yourself or someone else, is to place in the kitchen a full assortment of wines and liqueurs.” The crêpes suzette, like many treats you serve in your own home, was an accident. But how many home kitchens have accidents that involve dessert, uncontrolled flames, and a prince? –Jill Lightner